JP2010034869A - Call center device and its calling method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a call center device which provides necessary information at an appropriate time without notifying owners of information home appliances many times, and to provide its calling method. <P>SOLUTION: The call center device calculates the emergency degree based on emergency degree information from an information home appliance and stores the emergency degree for every home appliance identifier, and then calls a destination telephone terminal corresponding to the home appliance identifier based on the stored emergency degree. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an electric device having a communication function, a call center device that communicates with a call terminal, and a transmission method thereof.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, electric appliances for home use such as refrigerators, washing machines, DVD recorders with hard disks and the like, which have a communication function (hereinafter referred to as information home appliances) are becoming widespread. Normally, owners of information home appliances do not always care what state they are in (for example, normal, abnormal, or need to be upgraded), and monitor and manage information home appliances externally. In many cases, it is requested to contact the contractor when it is necessary to deal with something. For example, in Patent Literature 1, when the identification information is transmitted at the start of operation of the information home appliance, the information home appliance management system responds to the information home appliance that management is started. An electrical equipment management apparatus that remotely manages the device is disclosed.
JP 2003-281006 A

  However, in the electrical equipment management device of Patent Document 1, for example, every time the information home appliance management system receives fault information from an information home appliance transmitted in response to the occurrence of the fault, a notification that the fault has occurred is sent to the owner. There is a problem that the number of notifications to the owner increases. In this case, the owner feels bothered to receive calls over and over, and the burden on the notification side (such as an operator of the call center device) increases.

  Also, there are usually times when the owner does not want to receive a phone call, such as during work hours. For example, in the case of a configuration in which a customer is notified immediately when defect information is received, the notification time may correspond to a time zone in which the owner does not want to receive a call, and the content of the notification is urgent There was a problem that the owner was inconvenienced when it was not important or not so important.

  The present invention has been made in view of the problems as described above, and can provide a call center device capable of providing necessary information at an appropriate time without repeatedly informing the owner of the information home appliance and its transmission. It aims to provide a method.

  A call center device according to the present invention is a call center device including a plurality of operator terminals, and a call control unit that makes a call connection to one of the operator terminals by making a call to the call terminal. An automatic response unit that receives an electrical device identifier and urgency level information from an electrical device having a home appliance information database that stores the electrical device identifier and the urgency level information in association with each other, and calculation based on the urgency level information An urgency level calculation unit that accumulates the urgency level for each electrical device identifier to obtain a cumulative urgency level, and the call control unit is configured to determine a contact address corresponding to the electrical device identifier based on the accumulated urgency level. It is characterized by making a call to a call terminal.

  A call center device calling method according to the present invention includes a plurality of operator terminals, and a call control unit for calling and connecting one of the operator terminals and the call terminal to the call terminal. An automatic response step of receiving an electrical device identifier and urgency level information from an electrical device having a communication function, a storage step of storing the electrical device identifier and the urgency level information in association with each other, and the urgency level The urgent level calculation step for accumulating the urgency level calculated based on the information for each electric device identifier to obtain the accumulated urgency level, and calling the contact terminal corresponding to the electric device identifier based on the accumulated urgency level And a transmitting step.

  The call center device according to the present invention can provide necessary information at an appropriate time without notifying the owner of the information home appliance many times.

  Hereinafter, embodiments according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a call center device 100 according to the present embodiment together with information home appliances 200-1 to 200-m (m is a positive integer) and a call terminal 300.

  Each of the information home appliances 200-1 to 200-m includes a communication unit 210 that can communicate with the call center device 100 via an IP (Internet Protocol) network 410 such as the Internet using IP packets. Information home appliances that are home appliances such as computers, home-use game machines, refrigerators, washing machines, health appliances, and robots.

  The call terminal 300 includes a communication unit 310 that can communicate with the call center apparatus 100 via a public network 420 such as an IP network 410 or a public telephone network by using a voice signal and a PB (Push Button) signal. Is a call terminal.

  The call center device 100 is a device for performing a call center service that responds to inquiries from customers, etc., and includes an IP network gateway server 110, a public network gateway server 120, a call management server 130, a home appliance information database 140, an operator Terminals 150-1 to 150-n (n is a positive integer) and a network 160 are included.

  The IP network gateway server 110 is a device that exists between the IP network 410 and a network 160 such as a LAN (Local Area Network) and converts and relays communication data. The public network gateway server 120 is a device that exists between the public network 420 and the network 160 and converts communication data to each other and relays them.

  The call management server 130 includes an automatic response unit 131, an urgent level calculation unit 132, and a call control unit 133.

  In response to a call from any of the information home appliances 200-1 to 200-m, the automatic response unit 131 makes a call connection with the information home appliance that has made the call and receives home appliance information from the information home appliance To do. The automatic response unit 131 provides the home appliance information to the home appliance information database 140.

  The home appliance information includes a home appliance identifier that is a unique name of the information home appliance, information on the status of the information home appliance (for example, the normal or abnormal status of the terminal, the necessity of version upgrade, etc.), emergency The basic value of the degree, the weight value, the calculation formula of the urgency level, and the like are included. In the home appliance information database 140, these pieces of information are stored in association with each home appliance identifier.

  The emergency level calculation unit 132 intermittently acquires the basic value and weight value of the emergency level stored for each home appliance identifier from the home appliance information database 140 such as every other day, and based on these values, The urgency value is calculated according to the calculation formula. The urgency calculator 132 calculates the urgency value for each home appliance identifier, for example, by the product of the basic value and the weight value according to the urgency calculation formula. Further, following the above-described calculation of the urgency level, the urgency level calculation unit 132 adds the urgency level value for each identical home appliance identifier to obtain a cumulative urgency level. The urgency level calculation unit 132 gives the urgency level and the cumulative urgency level obtained by the calculation to the home appliance information database 140. In the home appliance information database 140, the urgency level and the cumulative urgency value are associated with each home appliance identifier and stored as a reception information table.

  The call control unit 133 refers to the reception information table stored in the home appliance information database 140 intermittently, for example, every hour. The call control unit 133 sets a predetermined urgency threshold value in advance, and acquires a home appliance identifier corresponding to the cumulative urgency level exceeding the urgency threshold value from the reception information table. Furthermore, the call control unit 133 acquires a contact corresponding to the home appliance identifier from another table (a contact information table described later) in the home appliance information database 140. Subsequently, the call control unit 133 makes a call to the call terminal corresponding to the contact address during the call available time period, and makes a call connection between the call terminal and one of the operator terminals 200-1 to 200-m.

  The home appliance information database 140 is a storage medium such as a hard disk that stores information on information home appliances. The home appliance information database 140 stores a home appliance information table, a registration information table, a reception information table, and a contact information table. Each time the home appliance information database 140 receives home appliance information from the automatic response unit 131, the home appliance information proper name (home appliance identifier), home appliance status information, and basic level of urgency included in the home appliance information The weight value and the calculation formula are stored in the home appliance information table.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a home appliance information table. The “proprietary name of information home appliance” is a home appliance identifier for uniquely identifying the information home appliance in the call center device 100. The proper names here are home appliances A11 and A12. “Household appliance status information” is information representing the status of the information appliance. The home appliance status information here is home appliance status information a1, b1, and the like. “Specific contents of home appliance status information” is information that specifically represents the status of the information home appliance. For example, operating time of information home appliances (for example, if the information home appliance is a DVD recorder with a hard disk, continuous power-on time, HDD recording and playback time, DVD recording and playback time, etc.), information on firmware version, For example, error occurrence information during operation. The specific contents here are information on software version upgrade such as “preparation for version upgrade of software that resolves the malfunction of function 1”.

  The “emergency basic value” is, for example, a value corresponding to the type of home appliance status information. The basic value here is set corresponding to the contents of the software upgrade. For example, in the case of version upgrade to eliminate the problem, the function 1 is set to 0.5, the function 2 is set to 1.0, and the function 3 is set to 0.1. The “emergency level weight value” is, for example, a value corresponding to the importance level of the home appliance status information. Here, the urgency level is set to 10 for resolving a software defect, and set to 1 for strengthening or expanding software functions.

  The home appliance information is configured as a file expressed in, for example, an XML (Extensible Markup Language) tag format. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a home appliance information table expressed in an XML tag format. For each home appliance status information, for example, <first row>, <proprietary name of information home appliance>, <home appliance status information>, <specific contents of home appliance status information>, <emergency standard value>, < It is defined in a logical tag format such as urgency weight value>, <emergency calculation formula>, and </ first line>. By expressing in such a logical tag format, the format is easy to handle and understand as a file.

  FIG. 4 shows a registration information table. The “proprietary name of information home appliance” is a home appliance identifier for uniquely identifying the information home appliance in the call center device 100. The proper names here are home appliances A11 and A12. “General name of information home appliance” is a name for uniquely identifying the manufacturer that manufactured the information home appliance. The general name here is household appliance A. The “location information of information home appliance” is information indicating the location of the information home appliance. The location information here is an IP address 210.188.102.105 or the like. “Authentication information of information home appliance” is information for performing access authentication with the information home appliance. The authentication information here is PASS_WD_A11A11 or the like. These pieces of information are registered in advance in the registration information table.

  FIG. 5 shows a reception information table. The “proprietary name of information home appliance” is a home appliance identifier for uniquely identifying the information home appliance. “Household appliance status information” is information representing the status of the information appliance. The home appliance status information here is home appliance status information a1, b1, and the like. Specific contents of the home appliance status information include, for example, a normal or abnormal status of the information home appliance, a status that does not require upgrading, and the like. The unique name of the information home appliance (home appliance identifier) and the home appliance status information are information included in the home appliance information received by the automatic response unit 131.

  “Reception date and time” is the date and time when the automatic response unit 131 received the home appliance information. The “emergency level” is a value of the urgency level calculated by the urgency level calculation unit 132 based on the basic value and the weight value of the urgency level corresponding to the home appliance status information. Here, for example, the value of the urgency level corresponding to the home appliance status information a1 with the proper name home appliance A11 is 5, and the value of the urgency level corresponding to the home appliance status information a2 is 11. The “cumulative urgency” is a value obtained by adding the value of the urgency for each identical home appliance identifier by the urgency calculator 132. Here, for example, the cumulative urgency value of the home appliance A11 when the unique name is received at the home appliance status information a1 is 5, and the cumulative urgency value of the home appliance A11 is 16 when the proper name is received at the home appliance status information a2. is there.

  FIG. 6 shows a contact information table. The “proprietary name of information home appliance” is a home appliance identifier for uniquely identifying the information home appliance. The “contact telephone number” is the telephone number of the communication terminal 300 owned by the owner of the information home appliance corresponding to the home appliance identifier. The contact telephone number here is 050-1234-5555 or the like. The “callable time zone” is a time zone during which the owner of the information home appliance can talk. “Other contact information” is a contact information other than the telephone number of the communication terminal 300, such as a mail address or a FAX number. These pieces of information are registered in advance in the contact information table.

  Operator terminal 150-1 includes a communication unit 151 and an input unit 152. The communication unit 151 exchanges information for call connection with the call management server 130 and makes a call with the call terminal 300. The input unit 152 accepts information home appliance information acquisition requests and remote operation requests from the operator. Each of operator terminals 150-2 to 150-m has the same configuration as operator terminal 150-1.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a home appliance information registration processing routine. FIG. 8 is a sequence diagram showing the operation of the call server or the like in the home appliance information registration process. Hereinafter, home appliance information registration processing will be described with reference to FIGS. It is assumed that information of the registration information table shown in FIG. 4 and the contact information table shown in FIG. 6 has already been registered in the home appliance information database 140.

  The automatic response unit 133 accepts incoming calls from any of the information home appliances 200-1 to 200-m as needed. Each of the information home appliances 200-1 to 200-m is preliminarily stored at a predetermined time such as 12:00 every day, or when information related to itself such as failure occurrence or software update preparation completion is updated or changed. A call is sent to the call center device 100 registered as a call destination. The automatic response unit 133 receives an incoming call from any of the information home appliances 200-1 to 200-m (steps S101 and S201). Here, it is assumed that the automatic response unit 133 receives an incoming call from the information home appliance 200-1.

  In response to the call from the information home appliance 200-1, the automatic response unit 131 authenticates the information home appliance 200-1 using the unique name of the information home appliance and the authentication information, and then the information home appliance 200- 1 is connected (step S202), and a call is started (steps S102 and S203). Subsequently, the automatic response unit 131 receives the home appliance information from the information home appliance 200-1 (steps S103 and S204). The automatic response unit 131 gives the home appliance information to the home appliance information database 140 (steps S104 and S205). The home appliance information database 140 stores, in the home appliance information table, the unique name of the information home appliance, the home appliance status information, the urgency basic value, the weight value, and the calculation formula included in the home appliance information from the automatic response unit 131. Moreover, the household appliance information database 140 memorize | stores the specific name of information household appliances, household appliance status information, and the time which received the said household appliance information in a reception information table (step S105).

  For example, when the automatic response unit 131 receives home appliance information from the information home appliance 200-1 at 03:00 on March 12, 2008, the home appliance information database 140 includes the unique name included in the home appliance information. Home appliance A11, home appliance status information a1, urgency basic value 0.5, urgency weight 10.0, and urgency calculation formula 0.5 × 10.0 = 5.0 are associated with each other. Store in the table (FIG. 2). Also, the home appliance information database 140 stores the unique name home appliance A11, home appliance status information a1, and the reception date and time March 12, 2008 03:00 included in the home appliance information in association with each other in the reception information table (FIG. 5). To do.

  When the automatic response unit 131 receives the home appliance information from the information home appliance 200-1 again at 03:00 on March 13, 2008, the proper name home appliance A11 included in the home appliance information, The home appliance status information a2, the urgency basic value 1.0, the urgency weight value 10.0, and the urgency calculation formula 1.0 × 10.0 = 10.0 are associated with each other and the appliance information table (see FIG. 2) and the unique name home appliance A11, home appliance status information a3, the urgency basic value 0.1, the urgency weight value 10.0, and the urgency calculation formula 0 .1 × 10.0 = 1.0 are associated with each other and stored in the home appliance information table (FIG. 2). Further, the home appliance information database 140 associates the unique name home appliance A11, home appliance status information a2 and a3, and the reception date and time March 13, 2008 03:00 included in the home appliance information with respect to the reception information table (FIG. 5). To remember.

  Thus, every time the automatic response unit 131 receives home appliance information, the home appliance information is added to the home appliance information table and the reception information table of the home appliance information database 140. If the automatic response unit 131 determines that the communication with the information home appliance 200-1 can be terminated (step S106), the automatic response unit 131 ends the communication with the information home appliance 200-1 (step S107). If so, the communication is continued and further the home appliance information from the information home appliance 200-1 is received (step S103).

  The processing in steps S101 and S102 described above may be processing in steps S301 and S302 of another home appliance information registration processing routine shown in FIG. Moreover, the process of step S201 and S202 mentioned above is good also as the process of step S401 and S402 of the sequence showing operation | movement of a call server etc. in another household appliance information registration process shown by FIG. That is, first, the call center device 100 sends a call to the information home appliance 200-1 (steps S301 and S401), receives an incoming call response from the information home appliance 200-1 in response to the call from the call center device 100, and the information home appliance. The telephone call may be started (steps S302 and S403) after making a call connection to the terminal 200-1 (step S402).

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing an automatic transmission processing routine. FIG. 12 is a sequence diagram showing the operation of the call server or the like in the automatic call processing. Hereinafter, the automatic transmission process will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, 10 is set in advance in the call control unit 133 as the urgency threshold.

  The urgent level calculation unit 132 inquires of the home appliance information database 140 about the basic value, weight value, and calculation formula of the urgency level using the unique name of the information home appliance as a key (step S501). The urgency calculator 132 inquires the home appliance information database 140 intermittently, for example, every other day. The basic value, the weight value, and the urgency level are acquired from the home appliance information table, and the urgency value is calculated according to the urgency calculation formula (step S502).

  For example, when the emergency level calculation unit 132 makes an inquiry to the home appliance information database 140 at 10:00 on March 12, 2008, the basic value 0 of the emergency level associated with the home appliance status information a1 of the unique name home appliance A11. .5, 10.0 is obtained from the household appliance information table. The urgency level calculation unit 132 calculates the urgency level 5.0 according to the calculation formula 0.5 × 10.0 = 5.0, and stores the unique name home appliance A11 and the urgency level 5.0 in association in the reception information table. . Subsequently, since there is only one urgency level 5.0 corresponding to the unique name home appliance A11, the urgency level calculation unit 132 stores the cumulative urgency level 5.0 in the reception information table. The urgent level calculation unit 132 waits for a certain time (step S504), and inquires the home appliance information database 140 again (step S501).

  When the call control unit 133 refers to the reception information table and determines that the cumulative urgency level 5.0 corresponding to the unique name home appliance A11 is below the urgency level threshold value 10.0 (step S503), at this time point Transmission to the communication terminal 330 is not performed. In this case, the call control unit 133 may notify the specific contents of the home appliance status information with the mail address or the FAX number stored in the “other contact information” column of the contact information table as the destination. good.

  When the urgency calculator 132 makes an inquiry to the home appliance information database 140 at 10:00 on March 13, 2008, the basic value 1 of the urgency associated with the home appliance status information a2 of the unique name home appliance A11. 0.0, the urgency weight value 10.0 is obtained from the home appliance information table. The urgency level calculation unit 132 calculates the urgency level 10.0 according to the calculation formula 1.0 × 10.0 = 10.0. Moreover, the basic value 0.1 of the urgency level and the weight value 10.0 of the urgency level associated with the home appliance status information a3 of the proper name home appliance A11 are obtained from the home appliance information table. The urgency level calculation unit 132 calculates the urgency level 1.0 according to the calculation formula 0.1 × 10.0 = 1.0. The urgent level calculation unit 132 stores the urgency level 11.0 in the received information table in association with the proper name home appliance A11 as the sum of the urgency level 10.0 and the urgency level 1.0. Subsequently, the emergency level calculation unit 132 stores the cumulative emergency level 16.0 obtained by adding the emergency level 5.0 and the emergency level 11.0 corresponding to the unique name home appliance A11 in the reception information table.

  When the call control unit 133 refers to the reception information table and determines that the cumulative urgency level 16.0 corresponding to the unique name home appliance A11 exceeds the urgency level threshold value 10.0 (step S503), the home appliance information database The contact telephone number 050-1234-5555 and the callable time zone 17: 00-19: 00 corresponding to the unique name home appliance A11 of the information home appliance 200-1 are acquired from the 140 contact information table (steps S505, S602). ).

  Subsequently, when the call control unit 133 determines that the current time is within the call available time zone (step S506), the call control unit 133 transmits the call to the call terminal 300 corresponding to the contact telephone number (steps S507 and S603). When there is a response from the call terminal 300 (step S508, step S604), the call control unit 133 transmits, for example, to the operator terminal 200-1 (step S605). When the response is received from the operator terminal 200-1 (step S606), the call control unit 133 connects the call terminal 300 and the operator terminal 200-1 and starts a call (steps S509 and S606).

  If the call control unit 133 determines that the current time is within the callable time zone, the call control unit 133 uses the mail address or fax number stored in the “other contact” column of the contact information table as the destination for several hours. You may make it notify to the telephone terminal 300 later or several days later. Further, as shown in the reception information table, even when the cumulative urgency corresponding to the unique name A12 remains 0.5, that is, when the predetermined period such as one week elapses while the urgency threshold is kept below 10, The specific contents of the home appliance status information may be notified by using an e-mail address or a FAX number as a destination, or a notification that a call is to be made to the call terminal 300 may be made after several hours or days.

  As described above, according to the call center device according to the present embodiment, the urgency calculated based on the information (basic value, weight value, etc.) on the urgency included in the home appliance information from the information home appliance is the information home appliance (home appliance). When the accumulated urgency value obtained exceeds the predetermined urgency threshold, the call is transmitted to the call terminal. By adopting such a configuration, when information that does not require urgency is received from the information home appliance, it is not immediately notified to the call terminal, and when information is stored for the amount to be notified, By collectively notifying the information to the call terminal, the number of notifications to the information home appliance owner can be reduced. In addition, information can be provided at a desired time of the information home appliance owner by notifying the call terminal only during a call available time zone registered in advance. Therefore, according to the call center device according to the present embodiment, it is possible to provide necessary information at an appropriate time without notifying the owner of the information home appliance many times.

It is a block diagram showing a call center apparatus. It is the figure which represented household appliances information as a table. It is a figure showing the household appliances information expressed in the XML tag format. It is a figure showing an information household appliance information table. It is a figure showing a reception information table. It is a figure showing a contact information table. It is a flowchart showing a household appliance information registration process routine. It is a sequence diagram showing operation | movement of a call server etc. in household appliance information registration processing. It is a flowchart showing another household appliance information registration process routine. It is a sequence diagram showing operation | movement of the call server etc. in another household appliance information registration process. It is a flowchart showing an automatic transmission processing routine. It is a sequence diagram showing operation | movement of a call server etc. in automatic transmission processing.

Explanation of symbols

100 Call Center Device 110 IP Network Gateway Server 120 Public Network Gateway Server 130 Call Server 131 Communication Unit 132 Call Control Unit 133 Automatic Response Unit 134 Urgency Calculation Unit 140 Home Appliance Information Database 150-1 to 150-n Operator Terminal 151 Communication Unit 152 On Output unit 160 Communication network 200-1 to 200-m Information home appliance 210 Communication unit 300 Call terminal 310 Communication unit 410 IP network 420 Public network

Claims (8)

A call center device comprising: a plurality of operator terminals; and a call control unit for calling and connecting one of the operator terminals to the call terminal.
An automatic response unit that receives an electrical device identifier and urgency information from an electrical device having a communication function;
A home appliance information database for storing the electrical device identifier and the urgency information in association with each other;
An urgency level calculating unit that accumulates the urgency level calculated based on the urgency level information for each electrical device identifier to obtain a cumulative urgency level, and
The call control apparatus, wherein the call control unit makes a call to a call terminal of a contact corresponding to the electrical device identifier based on the cumulative urgency level.   2. The call center device according to claim 1, wherein the call control unit makes a call only to a call terminal of a contact corresponding to an electrical device identifier corresponding to the cumulative urgency level that exceeds a predetermined urgency level threshold value.   The call center apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the emergency level calculation unit calculates the emergency level based on a basic value and a weight value included in the emergency level information. The home appliance information database further stores the electrical device identifier in association with the contactable time zone,
The call center device according to claim 1, wherein the call control unit transmits only at a time included in the contactable time zone. A call center device calling method including a plurality of operator terminals, and a call control unit for calling and connecting one of the operator terminals to the call terminal and calling the call terminal,
An automatic response step of receiving an electrical equipment identifier and urgency information from an electrical equipment having a communication function;
A storage step of storing the electrical device identifier and the urgency information in association with each other;
Urgency calculation step for accumulating the urgent level calculated based on the urgent level information for each electrical device identifier to obtain the accumulated urgency level;
A call center device sending method, comprising: a calling step of making a call to a contact terminal corresponding to the electrical device identifier based on the cumulative urgency level.   The call center device according to claim 5, wherein the calling step sends only to a call terminal of a contact corresponding to an electrical equipment identifier corresponding to the cumulative urgency level that exceeds a predetermined urgency level threshold. Method.   6. The call center device transmission method according to claim 5, wherein the emergency level calculating step calculates the emergency level based on a basic value and a weight value included in the emergency level information. The storing step further stores the electrical device identifier in association with a contactable time zone,
6. The call center apparatus transmitting method according to claim 5, wherein the transmitting step transmits only at a time included in the contactable time zone.

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